As Lecturer in Persian Language and Culture in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Mahyar Entezari coordinates and teaches elementary and intermediate Persian (Farsi). Additionally, he teaches Iranian cinema and Persian literature. He completed his Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to teaching Persian as a foreign language, he specializes in cultural studies. His research focuses on transnationalism and representations of Afghans in Iranian cinema, and he has received awards from the Fulbright Program and the U.S. Department of Education.